I have made school mornings easier by putting breakfast out

[PrunellaMcTat]

I realise this wouldn't be for everyone, but it's really made a positive difference for us.

Before:
16yo dd moping about saying she can't face breakfast.
14yo ds in the kitchen frying eggs and making a mess.
10yo dd eating her body-weight in sugary crap cereal.

So I changed it a bit and now when everyone gets up (about 20 minutes after me) breakfast is out on the table. I do something different every morning, it's very simple, no choice, just sit down and eat what's there. They love it!

This week was:
M - croissants and jam and milo
T - porridge and fruit
W - brioche toast
Th - Yogurt and fruit
F - Eggy bread

I put out a hot drink, a bottle of OJ or water, and their vitamins.

It takes me 5 minutes, and they clear it all up when they're done. Everyone has been so much more cheerful in the morning. I've been doing it for a few weeks now - I include 5 simple breakfast choices along with my big weekend shop. It hasn't cost any more. The teens have even been getting up to join in breakfast on flexible learning days (when they don't have to be at school).

I make packed lunches for my teens (which I’m just about to do) but they get their own breakfast, put their used stuff in the dishwasher and sort themselves out. I’m not sure they’d want me fussing over them in the morning.

@PrunellaMcTat Inspired by this thread, we started doing this this morning. It was noice and there were no arguments about what the kids were having for breakfast.

It’s vitamin d that is recommended for children due to risk of rickets. We can’t make vitamin d in the winter, there are very low levels in food and it’s actually recommended for all adults.
I find some vitamin d and c goes a long way towards reducing the number of colds in children and adults.
food also doesn’t have as many vitamins and minerals as it used to and is absolutely possible to eat a diet rich in processed food but poor In vitamins and minerals. People didn’t eat diets like in the past and food was less intensively farmed and soil wasn’t stripped of minerals.

It’s really lovely. Unfortunately mine won’t eat it when I try to do this.

No I don't. It sounds lovely but I can't as I'm not there. I wake my teens when I leave for work at 7.15 and they get whatever they want. Usually yoghurt so can't get this or milk for cereal out of the fridge. If they want fruit it's on the side in a bowl and bread in the freezer if they want toast.

If I got everything out or prepped then I'd be throwing food away as they'd decide on a teenage whim they wanted something different. Or the cats would eat it.

We try to have breakfast together on a Sunday as and when teens emerge from their dens.

Those that do this, how does it work in the school holidays? For the most part mine are still in bed when I go to work.

By the age of about 11+ they should be perfectly capable of getting themselves up and sort out their own breakfast.
All this pandering, no wonder they are hopeless as adults.
Feel sorry for the DS who fries eggs but now doesn't, what's wrong with that?

It's nice to do a more leisurely breakfast at weekends occasionally but breakfast and lunch is DIY in this house.
Howling at the outrage that DC wash up!
Call SS !

I don't lay a big spread on every morning with toast, cereal, croissants etc because I don't think it's necessary. I serve my kids porridge or cereal - I make it for them because I don't want the mess of them pouring milk /spilling cereal everywhere.
But I don't understand those who say their kids just get it themselves - are you not in the kitchen with them? Where are you? Do you not have breakfast together?
Or at least be in the room while they eat, chatting? I don't expect my children to make and serve themselves other meals so why would I at breakfast. I do however expect them to help with meal prep, table laying at all mealtimes, so no they don't get to roll out of bed and arrive downstairs to a laden table and just tuck in, I'm not the household skivvy.
They help getting bowls and spoons out etc, everyone pitches in. At other meals they help peel veg, stir pans.

I wake my kids up, then they get themselves up, and get their own breakfast.

They choose what they want (toast or cereal or eggs or yoghurt, juice/milk/hot chocolate)

They also empty the dishwasher and load it with stuff they've used.

They make their own lunches (either the night before or in the morning).

They're all teens. I'm not a morning person and they all get up before me.

I prepare evening meals every day for them, and they don't have to wash or dry up (though they do help clear table and load dishwasher). Though I'm starting to ask them to cook the odd meal so they will all be able to cook a range of stuff when they leave home.

But surely you are there with them? There's something quite sad about a child just making their breakfast and sitting at a table alone eating it. Do people need to leave for work so early they can't sit with kids while they eat breakfast. I work full time but I'm usually still around at 7.30am?

@BuffaloCauliflower @NoSquirrels the fire brigade implore people not to put dishwashers on overnight as they are a massive cause of home fires. I used to do this but now I make sure it has finished its cycle before we go to bed and I still unload it first thing. It really is a thing that so many home fires are caused by dishwashers so pls pls think carefully (even tho it is convenient) before putting it on when no one is awake. Sorry for derail.

I leave the house at 7am, kids up at 6.30 and 6.45 and pour their own cereal into their own bowls. Hardly taxing for them.
They also wash up the breakfast pots when home from school. I'm raising them to be able to manage a home, I'm not their slave.

Typical MN
No they are up a chimney!
Of course someone is there but they are teens not babies.
We are all bustling about getting ready, we don't eat breakfast at the table together the sound of DH chomping would make me murderous
We eat at the kitchen island in the mornings as it's warmer in there and tbh it's not a big performance that needs the table laying etc

@KweenieBeanz It's surely not that much of a stretch to imagine that different people do things differently is it? My children who are teen/preteen, make their own breakfasts and have done for years, they like cereal, always weetabix or porridge, and sometimes they have toast or brioche, occasionally a yogurt. They don't need any help with that. But one likes to get up and eat straight away, the other likes to be fully dressed, hair done, everything but teeth brushing done before they eat. They like to do things the way they like to do them. Everybody clears up after themselves. It's fine though, don't worry, nobody is sad that other people are not actually sitting down with them, on the contrary, we're one of those families that you would probably think is awful who don't really do our chatting in the morning before we all leave for school and work.

No, we aren't there in the kitchen with them, we only have one bathroom so we take turns in there and in the kitchen, it would be chaos otherwise even though we don't all leave the house at the same time. The DCs definitely aren't sitting sadly on their own, they will be reading or looking on their phone, as will I when its my turn.

Fab!! Glad it was nice!

I thought it was the norm too? I always put out cereals, milk, bowls, juice and toast for my teens.

I'm surprised anyone would think 'Ooh I've had a brainwave, I'll make breakfast' ?!!

I've never laid out anything, I'm not running a B&B .
When little I made their breakfast but they liked doing it from about 10/11.
Started at Brownies when they learnt to make me cups of tea.
DH always leaves very early when everyone else is asleep so he has made his own breakfast.
I get up next and make my coffee and porridge, teens filter down and get their breakfast -porridge, eggs, toast, toaster pancakes etc
No drama
I don't make other people's lunches either 😱

@Ragwort that's just so sweet of your DF. Brought a tear to my eye.

😂 so relatable!!

It’s interesting to see how different peoples mornings are! Mine all get their own too. I wouldn’t say I wasnt there, but I’m not sitting down munching a bowl of cereal with them. Tbh I’ve never considered doing that! I wouldnt want to eat then, and there’s just so much to do in the morning! I’m just sort of hurtling about doing water bottles, feeding the baby, chucking stuff in the school bags, finding trainers/shinpads etc etc. There’s definitely nothing quiet or sad about it though..there’s 4 kids under 11 in a small kitchen. It’s bloody deafening!

My DS always refused to eat breakfast and it made me feel really guilty him going off to school like that. I guess I couldn’t force him though.

@PrestonNorthHen exactly this. We're all in and out of the kitchen, they get what they want, sometimes I cook them a fake macdonald's and sometimes they both have croissants but other times they have cereal and toast.

Also I leave the house at 730, lovely that others have more time but I don't!

At the weekend we do sit and have breakfast and make pancakes etc but have no time in the week.

Maybe the porridge is done in a slow cooker/rice cooker?

I start work at 7am and my dc are in breakfast club Mon-Fri, so I make sure to give them a cooked breakfast on Sat, Sun and any days I’m off. They can make their own breakfast but they usually stick to just toast or cereal. I like to do a hot breakfast so I’ll do them something like a fry up, pancakes, waffles, parantha’s, breakfast muffins etc. There is definitely less mess when I make it for them. DD does occasionally make them pizza toast and manages to use every utensil we have and use every inch of kitchen space!